Physicians emphasize benefit to society in research precedence

Ethical considerations should have a role to play in setting priorities for medical research, they believe.

By Vida Foubister, AMNews staff. April 2, 2001.

Advances in scientific research and knowledge are at the cusp of significantly changing the way medicine is practiced, according to several eminent sources.

Take, for example, the Journal of the American Medical Association Feb. 7 theme issue, "Opportunities for Medical Research in the 21st Century."

"The ongoing revolution in biomedical science is of an unprecedented magnitude, is accelerating dramatically, and promises almost unlimited opportunity for the betterment of humankind," wrote members of the issue's editorial committee in an accompanying editorial.

Then, just over a week later, a rough draft and a precursory analysis of the human genome sequence were published both by the publicly funded international Human Genome Project in Nature Feb. 15 and by Celera Genomics of Rockville, Md., in Science Feb. 16.

"A sequenced genome holds the promise of radical new approaches to medicine and will dovetail with other approaches in the biological sciences to deliver nothing less than a mechanistic understanding of life itself," wrote Richard Gallagher, chief biology editor at Nature, in a letter promoting the special issue.

Although this potential for scientific discovery has generated great excitement among researchers and high anticipation among the public, it also raises a fundamental ethical question: Is the research that's being pursued also the research that's likely to be of most benefit to society?

This question is often overshadowed by concerns about the way research is conducted and the implications of any outcomes. Nevertheless, it's one that Jerome P. Kassirer, MD, editor-in-chief emeritus of the New England Journal of Medicine, among others, believes should be addressed. [...]